What's wrong with my photos?

okay

qhat

Hi & welcome to POTN

Firstly before a mod pays a visit it is not permited to post other folks images ~ links are fine.

Secondly IMO it is an interesting thing to do to emulate anothers style but you really should develop your own over time.

Lastly, in respect of the two images. The Noink user has likely PPed the image and added saturation but the the shadows are very blocked up. Your boxes image could be enhanced as desired by PPing i.e. use PS do not think that the camera can do a better job or rely on the camera to do the work for you

Oh, if you allow Image Editing folks will likely offer their PPing suggestions

ALOT of it has to do with post processing. It can make the difference between a spectacular photo and a bland one.

Look in your manual under "Picture Styles"... you can adjust them too! The default setting is pretty bland. If you want ultimate creativity, shoot in RAW mode and play around in photoshop or whatever to get the results you want. It starts in the camera (composition of the bike is pretty cool) and all the brightness/color/sharp​ness can be manipulated to a huge degree.

The D80 isn't much different in IQ than the XTi, Don't worry about it.

The Nikon f/2.8 lens is better in low light (probalby a good lens for wedding photography), but for shooting normal stuff (landscape) outside the Sigma should be more than fine. So don't worry about that...

Thanks for the replies. Next time ill make sure to post the link instead of the picture.

As for post processing, the photographer claims he doesn't do ANY post processing other than image sizing.

I used to post process my pictures (saturation, colour, etc) but I feel like I don't have the time anymore since this will be more of a blog/journal.

Dstanic you said to look under picture styles. I've lost my manual and I believe that there is nothing else I can adjust in my camera to improve the pictures.

Any other ideas besides pp?

Thanks

Part of it I'd say is the subject matter itself.
The bike has contrast, varied colour and some shadows.
The boxes are a brown with green lettering and green background. Very little to give some contrast to the items and sort of a flat subject to work with.

This has nothing to do with the camera.

Next time you find a fixie laying on the ground and you're there with your buddy and his camera, take the same picture...

ok maybe the pics i gave were a bad example to compare.

if you look at both the sites, you can see the overall difference.

moolamarios wrote in post #6103148
Dstanic you said to look under picture styles. I've lost my manual and I believe that there is nothing else I can adjust in my camera to improve the pictures.

Thanks

It's super easy.. if I remember correctly, by default the "set" button on the camera brings up the picture styles. I changed my set button, so the other way is to click on menu, then it's in the list on the second tab (second from the bottem)..

Here you can download the manual (directly from canon.. go figure..). Click on "drivers and downloads".

http://www.usa.canon.c​om …egoryid=139&mod​elid=14256

WOW
i totally forgot I even had that on my camera. I can change my saturation, contrast, and colour

Looking at the previews from the pics I've just taken, this may be the thing that has been lacking from my pics.

Thanks!

ImRaptor wrote in post #6103369
Part of it I'd say is the subject matter itself.
The bike has contrast, varied colour and some shadows.
The boxes are a brown with green lettering and green background. Very little to give some contrast to the items and sort of a flat subject to work with.

+1. At first I thought you just needed better lighting and a little PP (i.e. contrast, saturation etc. )- some fill flash in particular to shed a little more light. But after looking at the images on the blog you are trying to emulate I realized that may be the look you are going for.

Despite the lighting, there generally seems to be enough color in the other bloggers images to make them more interesting IMO. If you don't have time to do any PP then I would experiment with your camera settings as already discussed and maybe try a little fill flash if that doesn't work for you.

Personally, I think the othre guys photos look like what you see in advertising/editorial type of shots. I looked at every photo from both blogs, I really didn't "get" your photos too much, I can "see" the idea that your attempting but honestly, I don't get this kind of "snap shot" style of photography, at least that's what I call it. It's as if someone just got a new camera, didn't know what side was up or down and going through the users manual and taking some shots. But I guess that's the style. Sorry, not much help...

If you look at my photos you can see why, I don't get this other style...

moolamarios wrote in post #6103744
ok maybe the pics i gave were a bad example to compare.

if you look at both the sites, you can see the overall difference.

Don't take this the wrong way, but going through both blogs I think it comes down a lot to skill at this point.

i've posted some updates
what do you guys think? i think its an improvement

Same as others have mentioned it's not really my style of shooting and I still cull what snapshots I do take and PP them as I find necessary. Most images get some curves massaging at the very least when I convert the RAW file. If you're shooting JPG it seems the best way to me is to get the in camera processing (in your case you can use those picture styles) configured to create a look you like.

I honestly don't know what you're after, but if you're shooting for yourself just get your images to look how you want them to and don't worry so much about what the rest of us think.